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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormrunner" data-source="post: 1063684" data-attributes="member: 13471">While I did find AU not quite up to the hype, I wasn't as unimpressed as you were, Iron_Chef.Production values:Art varies.  The pieces by MacBin and Wood were quite good, but one of the others (David Hendee, though no sig appears on the pics) seems to feel that scratchy lines and big globs of solid black make up for lack of detail and proper proportion.  Unfortunately Hendee seems to have been popular with the designers, or at least more prolific than the others.Readability is fair to poor.  While legible, the font is just a bit too small - despite the lined background, the text of the PH is more readable than that of AU.  And while I don't consider the lack of alternating "greenbar" in the tables a major failing, it would have been nice.And yes, the cover looks like GURPS Third Edition, first printing.  I don't consider this a major flaw, though.  I like GURPS.Races: Could have done with more background/culture/description.  The litorians (lion-men) have some potential, it was nice to see a Thomas Covenant-style race of civilized giants for once, and the fey races showed at least some creativity.  On the other hand, the sibeccai (dog-men) seemed both bland and stereotypical, and neither the draconian mojh nor the elf-like verrik excited me.  All, however, were little more than sketched in - presumably the flavor bits are being saved for The Diamond Throne, a marketing ploy that always annoys me.Classes: Probably the most interesting part of the book, for me.  In particular the unfettered, warmain, oathbound, and witch seemed particularly useful, but YMMV.  I'd conside this the most original section.Feats and skills: Note that AU is not fully 3.5 compatible as written.  Also, Monte seems fond of "Sneak checks", an average of the character's Hide and Move Silently skills.  I didn't think the benefit, if any, was worth the extra calculation.  Some nice feats, a few which seem potentially overpowered (such as Modify Combat Style).  The idea of "Ceremonial feats" is interesting, though game-wise the main effect is that PCs without a truename can't take them (but are more resistant to certain spells).Spells: I really like the idea of most spells having three power levels, e.g. a nominally 2nd-level spell also has a weaker (1rst-level) and a stronger (3rd-level) version.  Treating all three as a single spell rather than three seperate spells makes sense to me.  OTOH, having all classes draw from one huge spell list results in a little less unique flavor for each class.  And the  school of a spell is given only in the desc, not in the short list, making life harder for specialists.The concept of AU as an "alternate Player's Handbook" results in a LOT of stuff being duplicated from the PH.  It probably would have been better to consider AU a "supplemental PH" (which I suspect is how 95% of buyers will use it - after all, how many people will buy the MM and DMG, but forego the PH and buy AU instead?) and use the space for additional crunchy bits.Overall, while portions were disappointing, I felt it was an average-to-decent buy.  It WASN'T the "ultimate be-all-and-end-all of Player's Handbooks" that some of the hype seemed to imply, and like ALL the hardcover d20 books I winced at rhe price, but I will definitely make use of substantial portions of the book.</blockquote>

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